Why are entrepreneurs successful?

One of the most important questions asked by most MBA professionals is how could they cultivate their entrepreneurship skills to further their expansion and growth. An important point that you have to remember is that you can never be inspired to become an entrepreneur. One cannot simply be brought to a seminar and then instilled with all the necessary values so that he can go ahead and become an entrepreneur. Although it is quite possible that one would be immediately motivated by what they hear from another speaker, it is also quite possible that he will forget everything he has heard at the seminar once it is over.

Hugh Hefner was quite innovative when starting Playboy – For him, it wasn’t just about the nude women, but about a strong business model

What one has to remember is that an entrepreneur is what he is today because of the drive he possesses. To be rightly able to cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship within you, you have to be prepared to fail. The best way to learn is to make mistakes, and by failing, not only will one learn to not repeat the same mistakes again, but at the same time, you will also learn the hard way to success. If the entire world was armed with an MBA or post graduation degree, where would be the differentiation? My personal belief has always been that when push comes to shove, an entrepreneurship can out do a high flying MBA graduate anytime. In fact, there have been numerous personalities that have enunciated this same ideology. For instance, Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, both were dropouts from college because they felt that it was of no use to them. In fact, Mr. Jobs even joined a calligraphy class (something that most others might think of as worthless) which proved to be his supporter when designing the font system of Apple. Or the same could be said for Milton Hershey, who with only a fourth grade education, started his own chocolate company. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate became the first nationally marketed chocolate. Today everyone craves his chocolates.

So what is it that separates such individuals from others? Were they born with a silver spoon in their mouths? Obviously not. They had what everyone else had, the difference lied in the fact that they actually made use of what they had and pushed themselves to the limit to excel. One of the best ways to succeed is through innovation. You must have heard it a million times, ‘The early bird gets the worm’, if you can pioneer something that others will want, you can ensure that they will be hooked on and keep coming back for more. It is important to beadaptable, resilient and determined. Change is inevitable, and there will be plenty of times when you’ll need to correct and modify your plans so that your business isn’t left behind. Be ready and willing to accommodate changes in the marketplace and be careful not be so rigid that you miss opportunities for growth and improvement. In addition to being adaptable, it’s important to be OK with failure. “Fall seven times, get up eight,” as the proverb goes. Mistakes and failure come with the territory of being a successful entrepreneur, and if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not putting yourself out there enough. Being in business for yourself will push you to the breaking point sometimes, so you’ll have to be determined and remind yourself how far you’ve come.

A point in case to be noted is that 99% of all entrepreneurs are creative in what they do. If you are creative, that is, you have the ability of seeing the world not just in black and white, then every challenge you face will be never seem insurmountable. Take Mark Zukerberg the creator of Facebook, he never stopped himself despite everything his website has achieved, he modified it time and time again from first text, to pictures, to picture and status comments, to videos and finally interactive games.

A good and sound business plan should have all the right key elements to ensure you can become a success.

A continuous learning curve is also of the utmost importance. So much can be learned from the experience of others, and fortunately, there are thousands of books out there from entrepreneurs who have achieved success. Thomas Edison actually had 3,000 attempts to create the light bulb. When asked about the failures he said “I didn’t fail 3,000 times. I found 3,000 ways how not to create a light bulb”. A simple college or post graduation degree is like the blueprint for the blub; people try, but fail and give up. An entrepreneur is the one that goes the distance, goes the 3001st way to finally succeed in making his bulb light up, creating something that goes down in history, something that everyone else wants to have and be part of.

The guy that created Hooters was definitely an entrepreneur in my books